Grant Brisbee has a great post over at SBNation about how this team was put together. Which reminded me that I made a whole-team trade tree for an Opening Day article that I never got around to writing. This seems like a good a time as any to post it. Go read Grant’s article, then come back here for the visual aid. (click to embiggen)

Winning three out of five games isn’t very hard. Winning three of five twenty times in a row is very hard. That’s where the Pirates find themselves after 100 games: 60-40, second best record in baseball. If the team can keep up this pace through the rest of the season they’ll win 97 games. If they only win half their games they’ll finish with 91 wins. Six wins isn’t much of a difference of the course of a baseball season, but it could mean the difference between winning the division or playing in the wild card game. The inescapable truth here is that these Pirates are a very good team this season. Better than we hoped, almost as good as we dreamed.

I’ve obviously had to cut down on my writing a bunch this season. Job requirements just haven’t left me with much spare time. More accurately, I haven’t wanted to spend the free time I’ve had sitting at the same desk where I work 8+ hours a day. I’m trying to update the standings (to the left <–) and roster (to the right –>) on a daily basis and that will be most of what I do here. Still, this Bucco team has been playing great baseball so far and deserves some praise.

The Pirates go into game 42 with the 5th best record in all of baseball and the 3rd best in the NL. They’re still flying under the radar because 1) the two better teams in the NL are in the same division, leaving the Bucs in third place and 2) the collapses of the last two seasons make people hesitant to believe they can continue the current success.

Here’s a few reasons not to worry and to jump on board with both feet:

The NL Central is the best division in baseball. (108-93, .538 Winning%)
The Pirates are 11-7 vs teams in the Central. (3-0 vs CIN, 3-2 vs STL and 4-3 vs MIL, 1-2 vs CHC)
The Pirates are winning on the road (11-9) as well as at home (13-8).

Still not convinced? Well, that’s very understandable. The Pirates have won more than their share of close game this season. Really good teams usually win more blowouts and are about even in close games.

Here’s your twelve word season recap: The Pirates had a bad week, then had a pretty good week. Today they go for the sweep against the Reds and try to even up their record at 6-6. Today’s lineup can be found on the sidebar to the right.

Recent moves:
Chris Leroux was Designated for Assignment and Bryan Morris called up from AAA.

Phil Irwin was called up today to take a turn for Wandy Rodriguez and his gimpy hamstring. Josh Harrison was optioned to AAA to make room. If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, this move portends the activation of Brandon Inge from the DL when Irwin is sent back down.

Jeff Locke appeared to be nibbling a lot. Either that or he was just wild. It was kind of hard to tell from my seats. Speaking of which…

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today. jetBlue park is pretty nice.

Mark Melancon looked much stronger, striking out two.

Tony Watson showed no ill effects from his injury earlier in camp.

Vin Mazzaro was the big surprise of the day with five Ks in two innings.

On the offensive side, Garrett Jones hit a mammoth HR to center but everything else was quiet until the 8th. Somehow the Bucs scored four runs even though the only well-struck ball was a Pedro Alvarez homer that went over the bullpens and a grassy area in right field. A classic El Toro bomb.

It should also be noted that Russell Martin hit three hard line drives today but each one managed to find a glove.

Tomorrow it’s back to McKechnie to put the wraps on my trip. Look for a closing post on Monday or Tuesday.